


Reinvention

by castle (paigeleg)



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Boys In Love, Episode Related, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, Feelings, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-15 21:22:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18507337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paigeleg/pseuds/castle
Summary: Patrick needed a life change.





	1. Murder Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first fic in a very long time, and while this chapter is currently un-edited, I really wanted to share this with everyone.  
> I love Patrick POV fics and wanted to do my own take on it. So...here. Enjoy.

Patrick sat in his car for what felt like hours. He doesn’t remember being this nervous before ever in his life, but he had never really done anything like this before...ever….in his life. What he was about to do was a huge step forward for him. It would literally change everything. His life was about to go in a whole new direction.  


Or he could start his car, turn around, say something came up and not change anything. He could go back home, back to his life, and stay where everything was planned out for him. He would also be miserable. The whole point of this was to find himself and not be locked away in a life he never really wanted in the first place. So this was it.  


He steeled his nerves. He took a deep breath. He was ready.  


He was not, however, ready for the quick tapping on his drivers window and man’s face with a wide toothy smile to be staring at him.  


“Ray?” He assumed, cautiously, rolling down his window. The man nodded and reached his hand through the window.  


"Hi Patrick. I know we have only spoken on the phone briefly but you’ve been sitting out here for several hours now and I am going to be late for a party. Here’s the key and there are leftovers in the fridge if you are hungry. Your room will be upstairs, second door on the left. I was hoping we would have time to chat, but you look like you are having some serious deep thoughts so we can bond as roommates and discuss your job tomorrow. I’ll be home around ten. Bye!” Ray’s smile didn't falter at all as he tossed the keys into the car and strode off down the street with so much as a glance behind him.  


“Bye?” Patrick responded, bemused. There was definitely no going back now. 

****************************************************************************************

The last box was out of his car and Patrick was exhausted. He didn’t have much, but combining the long drive and the emotional night that led to him to packing up all his things and driving to the middle of nowhere, it had been an exhausting day. He was grateful the room came furnished, even if the styling of the wallpaper looked like his grandma’s house. He flicked off the lights, flopped on the bed, kicked off his shoes, not even bothering to change. He could worry about everything else in the morning. He laid hi head on the pillow and let out a deep breath, the nerves from the day finally easing. He could do this. This was good. This was good decision for him. He briefly thought about grabbing his phone from the bedside table (he had put it on silent the entire drive here and refused to look at it until he was settled) and decided against it. He knew there would be missed calls and texts from various family members and friends and “random” ones from Rachel.  


That he was not ready for. It could rest in the charger for the night and he would deal with it all tomorrow. Plus he needed to figure out how to tell his parents that this wasn’t running away, it was something else. The exhaustion was soon overpowered by the replay of his last conversation with Rachel. Her accusation of him running away echoing in his head. She probably relayed everything to his parents (who completely adored her) in a way that wasn’t all that flattering to him. He didn’t want to be cliche and say he was running towards something because he never had a destination or goal in mind. He just needed a moment to breathe and figure things out. When you've been with the same woman for a decade, when your entire extended family lived in the same town, when everyone basically made your life choices for you, there was no room to breathe. Or think. Or move. Or anything. He loved his family, they were good people, they just had all these expectations about how his life was supposed to go. He was fine with most of it, honestly. He liked all the sports he was expected to play, he enjoyed the music lessons and the family singalongs and the open mic nights, he even enjoyed going to the same college as he dad had and majoring in the same subject. He even enjoyed the job he had.  


If he was being honest with himself, the only thing he hadn’t enjoyed was all the pressure surrounding his relationship with Rachel. They made sense, he knew that. They looked good together as was constantly pointed out by everyone they knew. On paper they were practically perfect. But they didn’t work. They had never worked romantically, not really, not when he looked back on everything.  


A yawn interrupted his thoughts. Patrick put all introspective thoughts of Rachel and moves and family away for the night as he curled up on his side, letting the exhaustion finally win. He would feel better, cleaner, after a good night’s sleep.  


“Patrick!” A cheery whisper came from the hall. “I hope you aren’t asleep yet.”  


"Not yet,” he answered honestly, not wanting to make a bad first impression on the man who had opened his home to him. He sat back up as Ray turned on the lights and sat on the edge of the bed.  


“I have to say Twyla’s party this year was so much better than her previous ones. It was probably because she had help from Mrs. Rose, who turned out to be the murderer which we didn’t find out until it ended because she never showed. I thought it was going to be David since he never shows up to these things but was there and he can surprisingly pull off a sequin feather headband-usually Alexis’s look but being able to pull off ridiculous clothing and accessories must run in the family….” Ray continued to relay the events of the evening, not seeming to care that Patrick had no idea who any of these people are.  


It was going to be a long night.


	2. General Store

Patrick felt like he was adjusting to life fairly well in Schitt’s Creek. He and Ray got along well enough, even though he really needed to establish some boundaries. He hadn’t made a lot of friends in the town during his first few weeks, beyond his roommate. There was a sweet waitress at the cafe who always had a smile and a tale (she had invited him for drinks once but he declined), the handsome vet who had told him where the best places to hike were during an overheard conversation during lunch at the cafe, and Bob, the owner of the only garage in town. He was ok without it, mostly, but he had spent every moment with Rachel and surrounded by family in his old life, so the loneliness was a bit of an adjustment. He knew if he tried he could make friends fairly easily, he was just a charming and friendly guy, but he still didn’t know how long he was going to stay in this town and didn’t feel like focusing on forming any lasting connections.

The one exception was for one of the first people Patrick had met in Schitt’s Creek. Beth, the woman who had owned the General Store. The night after he had moved in with Ray he realised he had forgotten some basic essentials and ran to the store right before they closed. She had been kind enough to stay open a little longer for him to grab what he needed and even kept up polite conversation while he shopped. He learned that her family was originally from Schitt’s Creek, but her parents had split when she was very young and she had lived with her mother in a city several hours away and never really came home until her dad wanted to retire. So when only a few weeks had passed since his arrival and she told him the store had to close due to poor money management and a lack of basic business practices. Her plan was to leave town after the store was officially closed and head back into the city. 

“I wish you had been around when I took over this place,” Beth said to him on the final day of the store. He had stopped in to see if she needed help packing and she gratefully took him up on it. They were both in the back behind the register packing things into boxes while customers pursued the remaining merchandise. “You’ll find that most people in this town only got their jobs because someone in their family had it first. My dad left it to me and I ran it into the ground,” She explained with a little laugh that made Patrick’s heart hurt. From what he had gathered from her and Ray’s many, many late night (and early morning) chats, Beth had agreed to run the store after a failed engagement and needed time to clear her head. So she had moved back home from the city so her dad could officially retire. She had run it for five years, but with very little business knowledge. 

“Maybe if someone like you had been around it wouldn’t be such a mess,” Beth continued as she grabbed a box of items to put out. “Maybe Christmasland will have a better chance.” She disappeared behind the little doorway, leaving Patrick to finish packing up her office. 

He felt bad for her, he did, but when he had looked over her financials there was nothing. He had advised her that the safest thing was to shut down the store and file for bankruptcy. He also wasn’t supposed to about Christmasland, but she had let it slip after a visit with the Mayor. Nothing was concrete, but no one else had filed for the store. Patrick had even briefly considered it- there was a Christmasland in his hometown once and it was as tacky as tacky could get- but beyond songwriting he wasn’t very creative. He wouldn’t even know what to fill the store with. He could handle all the numbers if someone in this town and innovation and creativity. But everyone seemed content with what they had in their lives and, Patrick didn’t mean this negatively, but no one in this town really seemed to have motivation to take a risk like that. Patrick shoved those thoughts down for another day and back to work. 

**********************************************************************************

A few nights later as Patrick was getting ready for bed, Ray popped in to his room, unannounced, and started to chat. 

“Patrick! I just popped in to to let you know that David Rose will be in at ten in the morning to file his papers for the general store which he bought -thank goodness for that because if Christmasland would ruin my seasonal tree business -but I have an engagement photo session at the same time.”

“So you want me to do my job?” Patrick asked with just a hint of teasing. 

“That would be great. I’m making eggs in the morning, sunny side up?”

“Scambled, thanks.” 

Patrick smiled to himself as Ray left his room. He had heard a few things about David Rose from various citizens of the town, but had yet to meet him. He had heard he snobby, pretentious, skrimpy, dramatic, and a loner. He had heard he was in an on again off again thing with the girl at the motel and that he picked up mechanics in barns. He had heard he was gay, he was straight, he was a sexual deviant, and that he was very, very lonely. 

Patrick wasn’t sure what was true, but for the first time, in a very long time, he was excited about something.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always welcome. If you want to critique, make it constructive.


End file.
